Author: Wick

The second area? Vocation. Job. What you do for a living, whatever you wanna call it. Has God called some to do some jobs? Yes. I have to be honest with that, because as someone who has submitted to ordination, I have confessed publicly that I believe God has called me to ministry, and in Decatur. This is a call felt by myself, and witnessed/attested to by others. It does happen. When it does, you cannot miss it. Consider Jonah and his call – he wasn’t ignorant and accidentally missed it, he actively ran away – and STILL – God routed him back on track.

But does God call every person to a specific vocation/place of service? I believe He enables us for many things in life, and often leads us in a direction that contains many choices. We each have passions, gifts, talents, and weak areas. These elements funnel us in certain directions, and we have to choose out of the available ways to make a living usually. I encourage my teens, and will encourage my girls as well – choose something you and God can enjoy doing together.

That’s tough, in a world with increasing amounts of jobs no one might seem to enjoy. So I always pair those words with the Truth that what we do is NOT who we are…or even the sum of our ability to be used for the Kingdom. But I do believe that ANY vocation we may find ourselves pursuing God in, can be used by God. (Having spent over a year in radio advertising, and selling mail machines with Pitney Bowes in my past, I believe God used me during those days as well.)

Overall – I think my point here is that God takes joy in our discovery. Discovering new things, discovering relationships, and choosing things that bring us joy as well as our creator. As we move towards God, we are open to his direct call, but also choosing from the entire garden He has given us to live in….anticipating that day when we will be able to choose “work” more wholly/freely in a world completely made new.

“I just want to know what God’s will is.” – follower of God

“…be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is…” – Romans 12:2

There are two main areas where I see this paralyzing, over-enthusing, and otherwise impacting people on a regular basis. The first is in the area of “significant other”. I’ve seen teenagers, young adults, and grown men and women who fall into the romanticized trap of God “having one person for me”, or even having “chosen this person for me”, etc.

Does God sometimes “choose”, or otherwise orchestrate things so that two people will more easily become one? Probably. But perhaps it’s more the exception than the rule. And definitely not something we need to be afraid of somehow “accidentally” finding the wrong person, or the one that God “didn’t choose”.

It paralyzes some that are dating to the point where they may never marry, for fear of “falling out” of God’s will by choosing the wrong person (i.e. any of a million reasons a girl may find to break up with a guy, must be God saying he’s not the right one). It over-enthuses others who have all the “holy inklings” of God being so stinkin’ behind this relationship, that it must be his will…and who says we need to save our purity for “marriage”, if God is with us? Who cares about the major issues we will face if we commit to life together? It’ll all work out because God has “brought us together”. 🙂

I love my wife. I believe God is pleased with us becoming and living as one. Maybe He was involved in orchestrating some of the events that led our lives to each other. Looking back, it’s kinda cool to think about. I thank him for everything that led us to each other. But Sarah could have chosen some other guy, and had a completely different life, but been just as happy/complete as she is today (I would selfishly add – “not really”). We offered God our dating relationship, our engagement, our marriage, and our family for His blessing. When we said “I do” (or “I will”), we became “the one” for each other. We continue to work out our relationship with Him, and with each other – committed through whatever may come…

At the same time, you only get one life. Hopefully you choose the right person to spend it with. Marriage is a huge deal. You should probably freak out about that sufficiently. 🙂 hehe

Whew….probably over-blogged that one. I’ll over-blog the second area tomorrow…

ps. I know I got family/friends at various stages of relationships. Know that I didn’t write this in response to any of ya’. It was more inspired by the teens I’ve worked with than anything.

This year may be different.

After the NHL Lockout a few years back, they installed a salary cap for NHL. Everyone believed this would “level the playing field” between newer, less talented, and less popular teams, and teams like the Detroit Redwings.

For several years now, it seems as if the cap had no effect on the Wings. Their talent has remained. Their big names have remained. Their ability to humble their opponent has increased, even.

But in the past few days, some things have changed. Hoping that in regard to the categories above, all we’ve lost are some names. But these are big names to have lost, unfortunately.

Names like Hossa, Kopecky, Sammuelson, Chelios, Conklin, and perhaps a few more before the dust settles.

My opinion? What we’ve lost in names, we make up for in the names and new meat that remains. We have a coaching and scouting staff that exceeds the abilities of most to select players that match the legacy of Detroit. This will definitely be an interesting year. As we say goodbye to this many great players for the first time since the beginning of a salary cap, I believe we’ve finally entered into a new era for the Wings.

But an era we can win a cup in, for sure.

(though I wish Hossa and Kopecky had gone to a less talented team. Hawks – looking forward to see if you can touch the cup next year.)